I have been working my butt off to pay off this debt, but with medical expenses being the blunt of my debt, the fact that I make just enough money to pay my regular bills, and loss of employment in the past being the primary reason I am in debt, I don't see myself being disqualified from being able to join the WSP. Let me rephrase what the WSP recruiter told me, "Your financial situation does not disqualify or alter your chances of becoming an officer." That is not a direct quote, but more or less exactly what he told me.

A lot of my bad debt is small bills that equal to a larger sum, my concern is that there is no way I can make the $25 payment on each of them monthly like I've seen other people suggest. If I could, I would be nearly out of debt in less than a year. I am doing the best I can with what I have and I'm not sure what else I can do.

If I am unable to qualify for a position in the Military Police, is there another field you would suggest that my debt will not affect my qualification? While my primary interest is law enforcement, I would be willing to take another position in the NG if I am unable to qualify for MP.

Before I was hired as a Border Patrol Officer, my credit report was pulled and I had to explain a lot of things that were negative on my credit report. Granted this was 1996, when I was not well-informed nor educated on how a person needs to be on top of their credit report. I had to explain by letter why something went into default or was delinquent and prove that the errors on my credit report by having my creditors provide letters of completion of payment. That experience alone in which I felt some embarrassment had me hone on my credit that I never had a issue with my report since then. Fortunately, I was hired by them in 1997 and I became an Army MP in 2004 and at that time in my life, my credit was never an issue.

You need to ensure that you have a good budget and listen to Dave Ramsey for financial advice.

Many combat arms jobs do not require a clearance or you can go into an administrative position as well.

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You might want to look into an MOS that does not carry a clearance as that would be open to you. By doing so, you'd at least get in. Then, look at going through a debt consolidation company... 85% are shysters, but there are a couple out there that are good.

Using a debt consolidation company for debt that is already charged off or reported as a collections item doesn't really do anything for you. The debt should be disputed with a simple "item verify request" to the three credit bureaus without offering ANY type of explanation....and I mean nothing. 7 or 8 out of 10 times they will not be able to verify the debt as required under the FCRA and the item will be deleted.

Using a debt consolidation company for debt that is already charged off or reported as a collections item doesn't really do anything for you. The debt should be disputed with a simple "item verify request" to the three credit bureaus without offering ANY type of explanation....and I mean nothing. 7 or 8 out of 10 times they will not be able to verify the debt as required under the FCRA and the item will be deleted.

Without getting too much into personal history of individuals, by using a *reputable* debt company, accounts that were legit (as in, disputing the charges with the credit bureaus came back as verified... which RC stated, is the first step) were handled to some positive effects.

A) They got paid, some at an extremely discount off what was owed.
B) Instead of saying "Charged Off" or "Collections", they became "Settled for less than owed" which is big difference (ie - not a charge off and proof that you made good faith attempts to settle the debt). A good company can negotiate this easily.. a bad one won't.
C) The overall score went up a lot.

Finally, watch you report like a hawk. Companies reported bad info all the time...

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Without getting too much into personal history of individuals, by using a *reputable* debt company, accounts that were legit (as in, disputing the charges with the credit bureaus came back as verified... which RC stated, is the first step) were handled to some positive effects.

A) They got paid, some at an extremely discount off what was owed.
B) Instead of saying "Charged Off" or "Collections", they became "Settled for less than owed" which is big difference (ie - not a charge off and proof that you made good faith attempts to settle the debt). A good company can negotiate this easily.. a bad one won't.
C) The overall score went up a lot.

Finally, watch you report like a hawk. Companies reported bad info all the time...

There is no score boost by paying off a charge off. Your score actually will initially go down for some time by paying it because it will be reported with a more recent negative activity date. If the debt comes back as verified the next best approach is to send a "pay for deletion" letter to straight to the collectors and get them to commit in writing to remove the debt completly (not reporting it as paid) in exchange for you sending them X amount of dollars. These tactics work. People think their scores go up by paying off collection accounts all the time...it just simply isn't true. Outside of getting a mortgage, or security clearance there is almost NO benefit to paying money on already charged off debt. It will automatically fall off after 7.5 years as well.

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Do not mistake score for history. The Army does not get your score. They get a very technical analysis of your credit history. You could have a score of ZERO and get a clearance provided you were paying your bills on time. On the same token you could have a score of one thousand million and have a couple of bills that you are >90 days late on or in collections and you wont be cleared.

If you have financial obligations that you are not paying you will not be cleared

If you have financial obligations that you are paying but they are in collections, charge off, etc then it becomes more gray.

My statements above are for your final clearance. MEPS, on the other hand, will likely screen you out. They have much higher standards than the actual adjudication facility does. They dont like to take a risk on a new recruit.

There is no score boost by paying off a charge off. Your score actually will initially go down for some time by paying it because it will be reported with a more recent negative activity date. If the debt comes back as verified the next best approach is to send a "pay for deletion" letter to straight to the collectors and get them to commit in writing to remove the debt completly (not reporting it as paid) in exchange for you sending them X amount of dollars. These tactics work. People think their scores go up by paying off collection accounts all the time...it just simply isn't true. Outside of getting a mortgage, or security clearance there is almost NO benefit to paying money on already charged off debt. It will automatically fall off after 7.5 years as well.

Score does go up if it is deleted, as per your first post and what I referenced to....

Score goes up quite a bit if deleted, but all that "settled for less" stuff isn't deleted. Debt consolidation companies as your post was referenceing generally never clean up your credit...they pay your debt (and keep a profit). Credit restoration companies attempt to remove the items...such as lexington law.

I may have used the wrong verbiage in trying to pin down the companies that help people. Needless to say, paying off debt and getting it removed from the report is the ultimate end-state for anyone having issues...